Government issues 22 more telecom licences; may delay spectrum allocation

Mumbai: The government today issued 22 telecom licences to new players, including Idea Cellular and realty firm Unitech, but companies aspiring to become pan-India telecom operators may have to wait longer to realise their plans.

With seven new operators waiting to get telecom licences, the government is now finding it difficult to make available adequate spectrum for all of them, according to a new report by the Wireless Planning and Coordination wing.

There is enough spectrum to accommodate all the seven operators in only four circles of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), the report said.

This means companies like Shyam Telelink, BPL and Datacom, which have recently got the letters of intent, may get spectrum only in a few select areas even though they have paid entry fee for a pan-India basis.

Unitech has been given licences for 12 circles, including in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Bihar.

Birlas-owned Idea Cellular got licences for eight circles. This would make Idea a pan-India operator. Idea was given licence in Punjab.

Datacom Solutions, in which Videocon has a majority stake, has been awarded licences for two more circles in addition to 19 given yesterday, DoT sources said.

DoT officials said no final decision has been taken on the allocation process for spectrum. The DoT is assessing the availability in each circle, besides continuing negotiations with the defence ministry to get spectrum vacated, they said.

The telecom ministry has so far cleared the decks for 120 LoI-holders to sign licences.

Telecom minister A Raja has signed these files and returned them to Sanchar Bhawan despite court cases challenging the government's decision to allocate spectrum on a first-come-first-served system based on date of payment, DoT sources said.

Idea Cellular and Spice have filed cases against the DoT in the TDSAT. The next hearing is due on March 12.

S Tel, Allianze Infratech and Parvsnath have also moved the Delhi high court challenging the government's decision to grant LoIs. These cases are listed for hearing this month and the matter is presently subjudice.
 
In fact, in the Parvsnath case, the court has directed that the signing of UAS licences in respect to the applications received after the applications of Parvsnath will be subject to the orders of the court. This creates uncertainty for companies such as Datacomm, Loop Telecom (BPL), Unitech and Shyam Telelink, all of whom applied after Parsvnath filed its application on August 27, 2007.